Posted on 04/25/2008 5:07:54 PM PDT by Braak
In the summer of 1863, Robert E. Lee led an ill-advised incursion into Pennsylvania. His army was defeated at Gettysburg, and thence afterward Lee beat a fighting retreat until the South lost the Civil War. One hundred and forty-five years later, the South--or what has become the South-Southwest--has won another kind of Civil War. It has transformed the sensibility of the country. It is setting the agenda for our political, social and religious mores--in Pennsylvania and everywhere else.
This thought, which has been recurring to me regularly over the years as I've watched the Southernization of our national politics at the hands of the GOP and its evangelical base, surfaced again when I read a New York Times story today. The article was about an "American Idol" contestant--apparently quite talented--who was eliminated after she sang the title song from "Jesus Christ Superstar." When it debuted 38 years ago, the rock opera was considered controversial for its rather arch portrayal of a doubt-wracked, very human Jesus, but the music was so good and the lyrics so clever that it quickly became a huge hit. In the delicate balance of forces that have always defined American tastes--nativism and yahooism versus eagerness for the new and openness to innovation--art, or at least high craft, it seemed, had triumphed. But our national common denominator of taste is so altered today that the blasphemous dimension of "Jesus Christ Superstar" now trumps the artistic part. And somehow, no one is surprised. Our reaction is more like, "Why would she risk singing a song like that?"
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
Only his first wife.
Not only do I think you are right, I think you can take that one to the bank.
What a revolting, ignorant article. It brought to mind an episode of Southpark where a perfect storm of smug occurred at South Park when the San Fransisco smug merged with the smug from George Clooney’s Academy Award speech. These people are insufferable.
I'm no military expert, but after a way-too-brief (first) tour of Gettysburg today I could be persuaded...
Damn a peace treaty, for the Northern Aggressor I will sign the treaty, provided you don’t put cheese on Grits. Only commies do that.
I did date a gal once who came from Los Angeles, via Columbia U. in New York and finally to the University of Alabama Birmingham to study medicine.
She acquired the unfortunate habit of grits while here although she had to put sugar in them - which has been considered a sacrilege in these parts.
I'm guessing that turned out to be a pretty bad habit to take back to the City of Angels - which she eventually did....
My daughter went to UA, Roll Tide, to make a few extra bucks she worked in a Truck Stop. The Cook showed me how to make grits, as opposed to eating them.
Go slow and carefully Brother.
I am an Alaskan. Let me tell you, there’s not that much difference between most of the people here - minus the hippy type that move up here from California - than the south...or the west and midwest, for that matter. Might even be more conservative on some issues - like guns, for instance.
The writer of this Newsweak article doesn’t know what he is talking about.
If ever there existed a more singular moment in the turning of a battle then the heroic exploits of the men of the 20th Maine and of Chamberlain in particular, I know not what it could be.
Reduced of bullets, ordered to hold position to the last, they stormed, outnumbered, and out gunned, saving a crucial position for the North.
Regardless of how one may feel as to the North or the South, the exploits of those men is one for ages.
Wilson considered himself a Southerner, despite his long residence in New Jersey, and believed in segregation and white supremacy, like most Southern Democrats of that period.
Well, Gettysburg was fight over a shoe factory - what I heard.
Does this Michael Hirsh ever get his head out of his navel and visit the planet? Please try to keep up with this century Michael.
Will someone investigate the makers of those tainted immunizations? The evidence of subtle autism is becoming more and more prevalent.
Is this the consensus? I guess what I want to know is, is this blasphemy angle Hirsch's own cockamamie idea, or have others floated it?
I don't pay much attention to AI, but it was a news item when she got voted off, so evidently it was some sort of surprise.
1. The Scots-Irish did not clear out Ulster under James I. That was Elizabeth I's doing. James settled the lands with Scots after the lands were seized when the previous owners joined one of many rebellions in Ulster. Many of the poor Irish were still there - someone had to do the work, and most didn't want any part of Ulster.
2. Scots-Irish were not necessarily Southern. They fought on both sides of the Civil War. They also settled in New Hampshire and Maine, as well as the Rockies.
3. Scots-Irish presidents run the gambit of Jackson, Polk, Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Grant (there's a contrast, Polk and Grant), Arthur, McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt, Nixon, Reagan(mom's side), and Bill Clinton. There's some diversity in its real meaning. Their politics range from leftist (Wilson) to conservative (Reagan).
I don't think Hirsch is Yankee with that last name, unless it's on his mom's or Grandmother's side of the family.
“Maybe it’s time for the North to secede from the Union.”
I can’t imagine the effete northern socialists who think that way having the courage to do so.
Perhaps you should just secede yourself...
He was also responsible for what was probably the most repressive administration in American history.
He seems to have gotten the idea for his article after reading a New York Times story about Smithson's departure from American Idol. It is not clear whether chemical substances were involved in the production of either piece.
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